Rajdeep Chatterjee

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The ecommerce boom in India has surely brought about several names to the entrepreneurial arena. There have been many instances where students undergoing their studies have started prominent business models in the ecommerce arena. Rajdeep Chatterjee is one of those entrepreneurs who found the scope of ecommerce and online grocery delivery in India. It is an e-commerce platform, which empowers and gives online presence to all small retail grocery stores & supermarkets to reach out to their customers in a better way. Customers can place order online in simple steps and get their order delivered at their doorsteps from their nearby shop.

Rajdeep also has a diploma in Entrepreneurship Administration and Business Laws from NUJS Kolkata, which has given him much credence when it comes to running a bootstrapped startup. They are already seeing 30% MOM order growth rate and are looking to bring on many new stores in the coming months.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

Indiangrahak, is a Kolkata-based startup that allows users to select from local grocery stores and place orders via the website for ordering and home delivery. Indiangrahak processes and sends orders directly to partner stores, who then deliver to customers.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

Indiangrahak is an e-commerce platform which empowers give online presence to all small retail grocery stores & supermarkets to reach out to their customers in a better way. Based on growing consumer demand fueled by ever-decreasing smartphone costs and internet penetration , India’s organized retail sector has been rapidly adopting e-commerce , while small shops have been left behind due to lack of know-how, limited resources, and operational complexity. There are an estimated 1.6 crore kirana stores and small shops that could benefit from e-commerce solutions in India.

What is your life mantra?

Never give up.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

One of the barriers for such a solution to scale really widely is the need for kiranawalas to be technology savvy enough to use an application. As we have started in Kolkata and Jamshedpur compare to other tech cities , and it was really very hard for us to scale up early.

How did you overcome those challenges?

Since starting our pilot operations in august of 2014 the response has been really encouraging from both parties and especially the store owners. The word has started to spread and that is how we’re getting new requests as well.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We haven’t raised any investments till now, currently, the startup has two full-time developers working along with the two co-founders and one marketing person it will hire more people going forward to ramp up its sales and marketing activities, for which it requires capital.

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

Indiangrahak.com is an early stage startup does not have the ability to pay their employees competitive salaries when compared to established businesses or large corporations, startup can protect from the problem of brain drain through continuous motivation so that employees are able to over-perform and exceed their expectations. Incentives to the employees by offering several other rewards such as disproportionate performance bonuses, revenue shares, stock options or directly a stake in the company, in addition to performance bonuses, revenue sharing, profit sharing, ESOPs are the key requirements for early stage startups to retain employees.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

1. Patience

2. Self-confidence

3. Dedicated hard work

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

1. Indiangrahak.com (recommended)

2. Hootsuite/Buffer

3. Quora/Reddit

4. Mailchimp

5. Google Analytics

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

I do not run away from a challenge because I am afraid, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet. I like to stay updated on startup news and new ideas that makes me more productive.

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

I wish i could sleep and pay sufficient time to my personal life.

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success:

As Famous Quote by Swami Vivekananda- “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success”.

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

I would recommend early stage startup to monetize their business model from day one.

One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

Startup journey is not so easy.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

The market size is big with an estimated Jamshedpur and Ranchi approx. 20,000 and more and Calcutta it is approx. 1lac. In India it is estimated 1.6 crore (16 million) kirana stores and small shops that could benefit from indiangrahak. Indiangrahak is already active in dozens of stores in Jamshedpur, Kolkata & Ranchi serving thousands of consumers since starting their pilot operations in august of 2014 we are seeing 25% month-over-month order growth rate and are looking to bring on many new stores in the coming months. For the next three years our target is to bring on many new stores to benefit them from the solution.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?